Societal trends and personal characteristics are facilitating movement from corporate to self-employment. The entrepreneurship movement is characterized by several trends that are influencing the way people work: such as younger workers expecting shorter-term commitments to work, expanding career options, opening of worldwide operations, and…

Noting that transfer and motivation are mutually supportive in creating an optimal learning environment, this Digest discusses transfer (the application of prior knowledge to new learning situations) and motivation (the impetus to create and sustain intentions and goal-seeking acts) in relation to language learning. It discusses the relationship…

Intended as a comprehensive collection of knowledge about managing college-level reading and study strategy programs for practitioners, administrators, and researchers, this book provides a review of the theoretical, empirical, and programmatic issues in the field. Chapter 1 ("Reading, Writing, and Academic Literacy" by Sharon L. Pugh…

This study seeks to establish which scientific reasoning skills are primarily domain-general and which appear to be domain-specific. The subjects, 12 university undergraduates, each participated in self-directed experimentation with three different content domains. The experimentation contexts were computer-based laboratories in d.c. circuits…

The study reported in this paper examined the effects of teaching learning strategies integrated with courses content on the study habits, attitudes, and mastery of course content of 122 students. Students enrolled in the experimental section of a freshman level course were taught learning strategies and course content; students in another section…

Defining metacognition as the set of skills and strategies one uses in monitoring and modifying how one learns, this paper addresses ways in which interactive hypermedia/multimedia instructional programs might enhance the meta-cognitive abilities of the learners who use them. It begins by identifying key issues and approaches to metacognition,…

The 4MAT system (an eight-step cycle of instruction that combines four learning style types and students' preferences for right-brain or left-brain modes of learning) can guide instructors in planning teaching strategies to meet students' diverse learning needs. Each of the eight steps of the system emphasizes one of the learning types and…

In addition to the cult mystique that the notion of self-directed learning (SDL) has attained, controversy has arisen over its definition, its proper environment, and other issues. Consequently, a number of issues have arisen. The first is that adults are naturally self-directed. The reality is that adults' reactions to and capability for SDL vary…

Facilitating Effective Learning and Teaching (FELT) is a program that involves the systematic analysis of learning by students. It identifies the processes of reflection and making implicit knowledge explicit in changing one's understanding of learning. The present investigation examines the prediction that students can enhance their…

Research on notetaking as a learning strategy and on the related techniques of outlining and concept mapping is reviewed. The effectiveness of these techniques in helping the learner encode new information and their usefulness in interactive multimedia instruction are explored. Research strongly supports an external-storage function of notetaking…

Current research suggests that culture strongly influences students' learning patterns, communication styles, perceptions, and behavior. This research summary details ways that teachers can improve student learning by becoming aware of cultural differences and employing culturally sensitive instructional methods. Concentrating on how students…

A study compared a text annotation method to underlining to ascertain whether students were more likely to learn and remember material they had read using one strategy or the other. Subjects were 67 students in 4 classes of a 7-week study skills course. One group was trained in text annotation, one in underlining, and two control groups were given…

This document offers teaching tips to be used if, on administration of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a class were to present a profile of scores that would suggest the need for help in one or more of the motivation or learning strategies areas assessed by the MSLQ. Some tips are supported by research; others are based…

This manual describes two methods of assessing college students' conceptual structures in the interest of student evaluation. The focus is on the mental frameworks (conceptual structures) that enable students to remember and apply facts and theories. The guide offers two methods, the "ordered-tree" and the "fill-in-the-structure." An introduction…

Predictors of novice learning in simulation environments were investigated in the domain of statistics. The first objective was to clarify the relation between intellectual ability and working method (e.g., orientation and systematical orderliness), and to determine the effects on learning of working method, independently of intellectual ability.…